That’s the headline in the USA Today on July 16,2015. Is that true?
Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal, it’s titled “The Unaffordable Care Act”. The Journal ran this on July 11,2015.
Who’s right?
I don’t know, but I do know that the USA story was based on the Supreme Court ruling and the Journal article was from research on the unbelievable rise in health insurance premiums for 2016. They average 10%-20% with spikes that run as high as 50%. The underlying health care cost are increasing by 3.5%-7%. What is causing the numbers seen in Tennessee where Blue Cross is requesting 36.3%, they ask for 65% in New Mexico, and Geisinger Health Plans of Pennsylvania up 58.4%?
Corporations are not going to continue to cover employees with these cost increases. So, more and more of you are going to get dumped by your employer and stuck with the ObamaCare crap policies with the high deductibles. See, when Jimmy Carter tried to run the oil business in the 70’s we had high gasoline prices and long lines. When Reagan dropped the whole Carter program the prices went down and the lines went away and have never returned.
The same thing is happening in health insurance. The elderly and the chronically ill are signing up for the high-end ObamaCare policies and 2/3 of the uninsured are opting to pay the penalty. So you still have a majority uninsured but those who are truly sick and need insurance are getting insurance. The other 2/3 will sign up when they get sick.
So, for ObamaCare, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train coming fast in 2016. A few Americans who are really sick are getting some help from insurance, but the cost is huge, since the others who were supposed to buy the high-cost, high-deductible ObamaCare insurance, are opting out and the cost to take care of those who are in is coming to those who were formerly insured by employers. But, not for long.
If you are getting your health insurance from our employer, strap it on, you are going to get the insurance from the government soon.
We saw the 3* inflation premium rises in Massachusetts a couple years before RomneyCare went into effect and a couple years after. Employers have not yet reached the point where all of them are dropping it, but I saw that handwriting on the wall as well. The best case as far as I’m concerned is what happened with defined benefit pension plans versus defined contribution plans. Employers almost all do defined contribution these days (if at all) because their cost is known and controllable. No worries about retiree medical care premiums, etc.
For the health insurance, the only cost that is fixed is paying the penalty, which historically is much less than the cost per employee of paying for the insurance. Seems like a “no-brainer” to me, but then the folks that passed the bill to see what’s in it apparently have no brains.